Question

regexp to match words

Asked by: JunkMan

hi,

i'm a complete dummie with regular expressions, i have a friend that kindly done this one for me /^\w+(\s+\w+?){0,44}$/

i'm matches sentences with a maximum of 45 words, but if i use any punctuation it doesn't work of course.

how can i make it ignore punctuation completely. like even if an isolated punctuation.

thanks in advance...

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Asked On
2005-09-02 at 09:31:37ID21549237
Tags

regexp

,

punctuation

,

match

,

words

Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
4
Points
100
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2005-09-02 at 10:01:31ID: 14811837

try this, I'm not able to test but just off the top of my head...

/^\S+(\s+\S+?){0,44}$/

~trail

 

by: arantiusPosted on 2005-09-02 at 10:40:55ID: 14812130

Best I can come up with is:

/^\w+(\s+\w+?([-'",.!?\s]*)?){0,44}$/

With other punctuation you might see also put in the [ ]

 

by: ZvonkoPosted on 2005-09-02 at 11:33:11ID: 14812527

Check this:


<form>
<textarea name="myArea" onBlur="alert(this.value.split(/\w+/).length-1)" rows="7" cols="80">
 hi,
i'm a complete dummie with regular expressions, i have a friend that kindly done this one for me /^\w+(\s+\w+?){0,44}$/
i'm matches sentences with a maximum of 45 words, but if i use any punctuation it doesn't work of course.
how can i make it ignore punctuation completely. like even if an isolated punctuation.
thanks in advance...
</textarea>
</form>

 

by: ozoPosted on 2005-09-02 at 12:13:10ID: 14812794

/^\w+(\W+\w+?){0,44}$/

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2005-09-02 at 13:25:34ID: 14813305

I had a chance to test this, and this does work =)

/^\S+(\s+\S+?){0,44}$/

regards,
~trail

 

by: ozoPosted on 2005-09-02 at 13:39:45ID: 14813403

/^[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*([\s\W]*\s[\s\W]*[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*){0,44}$/

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2005-09-02 at 13:40:39ID: 14813409

if you want to test the regex without changing your code, here's a nice site which you can test your regex online...

http://www.quanetic.com/regex.php

hope that helps ;^)

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2005-09-02 at 13:48:45ID: 14813465

ozo,

I'm just curious...

what is the difference other than length, between

/^\S+(\s+\S+?){0,44}$/

and

/^[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*([\s\W]*\s[\s\W]*[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*){0,44}$/

I'm trying to understand what your version would catch and mine wouldn't, just trying to figure out what greater benefit yours offers over what I'd posted for my own educational benefit, not puting yours down or saying you're wrong.... just for knowledge's sake =)

thanks!
kind regards,
~trail

 

by: ozoPosted on 2005-09-02 at 14:00:20ID: 14813531

/^\S+(\s+\S+?){0,44}$/
counts
"A#B $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / Y:Z" as  14 words
/^[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*([\s\W]*\s[\s\W]*[\w\S]*\w[\w\S]*){0,44}$/
ignores all punctiation, and counts it as 2 words
 /^\w+(\W+\w+?){0,44}$
counts it as 4 words

 

by: JunkManPosted on 2005-09-05 at 04:57:39ID: 14823005

ozo, brilliant mate, thank you very much.

 

by: JunkManPosted on 2005-09-13 at 06:27:45ID: 14871433

just one addin, to anyone using this regexp please insure that you trim the string. or you might have big problems.

by the way Ozo if you see this, could you do a fix for it. to ignore spaces on the front or begining of the string.

 

by: ozoPosted on 2005-09-13 at 07:03:02ID: 14871772

/^\W*\w\S*(\s\W*\w\S*){0,44}\W*$/

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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